Watch Dance Me Outside

"After the party's over, real life kicks into gear."

Dance Me Outside is a Canadian film set in Ontario. It’s the story of life on an Indian Reservation. The two main characters, Silas and Frank are trying to get into college to train to become licensed mechanics; but before they can graduate, they have to overcome the hurdles of managing school along with family, girls, and violence within the tribe and outside of the tribe in the local bar scene.

Dance Me Outside is based on the book of the same name by the author W. P. Kinsella which tells the fictional accounts of an ensemble of modern Native American youth growing up in Alberta, Canada. The youth deal with the hardships of dating, alcohol, family and murder along with the racial tension between the Native American population and the Anglos with a refreshingly real perspective that doesn’t play down the harsh reality of the situation.

The light but serious tone of the series of vignettes from W. P. Kinsella’s novel was preserved in the movie. The vignettes were interwoven but independent throughout the film, with the main narrative focusing on the story of Silas Crow and Frank Fencepost in their quest to pass their mechanics course. This all takes place within and without of the boundaries of the reservation that Silas and Frank grew up on.

In one storyline, the tension between members of the reservation and Anglos of the outside world is felt when one of the female members of the reservation marries a white lawyer while her boyfriend from the reservation is away in prison. For a large audience that did not grow up on a reservation, stories like this give an accurate and insightful glimpse into the primarily private reservation life of modern Native Americans.

The movie stars newcomers Herbie Barnes, Adam Beach, Michael Greyeyes, Kevin Hicks, and Sandrine Holt. Director Bruce McDonald made the movie such a success that it was subsequently adapted into a television series called The Rez.